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| Criterion |  Business Strategy Value Chain Analysis |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Value Chain Analysis shows where value is created, costs accrue, and differentiation becomes possible along the process. It compares strengths, risks, market logic, and courses of action. The result is captured as a value-chain map and lever list. | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | High |
Timedifferent | Half day | 30-60 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 2-8 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Value Chain Map, Lever List | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives |
Tagsno overlap | StrategyBusiness modelDiagnosisAnalysis | Root causeQualityOperations | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
